In the comics boom of the 1940s, a legend was born: the Green Turtle. He solved crimes and fought injustice just like the other comics characters. But this mysterious masked crusader was hiding something more than your run-of-the-mill secret identity . . . the Green Turtle was the first Asian American super hero.

The comic had a short run before lapsing into obscurity, but the acclaimed author of American Born Chinese, Gene Luen Yang, has now revived this character in The Shadow Hero, a new graphic novel that creates an origin story for the Green Turtle as a young, Asian-American immigrant named Hank whose mother is really, really excited about the possibility of having a superhero for a son . . . with at times disastrous results.

In an homage to the original serial comics format of ‘The Green Turtle,’ First Second will be publishing The Shadow Hero in six monthly e-issues as follows:

The Shadow Hero 1: The Green Turtle Chronicles — On Sale February 18th

The Shadow Hero 2: The Dawn of a Golden Age – On Sale March 18

The Shadow Hero 3: Fathers and Sons – On Sale April 15th

The Shadow Hero 4: Fights You Cannot Win – On Sale May 20

The Shadow Hero 5: True Colors – On Sale June 17th

The Shadow Hero 6: Enter the Green Turtle – On Sale July 15th

Each will have an original cover and be available via Amazon, Apple, and B&N.

The Shadow Hero full graphic novel will be published in print and digitally on July 15th.

The Shadow Hero was created by Gene Luen Yang and Sonny Liew. Gene Luen Yang‘s debut book with First Second, American Born Chinese, is now in print in over ten languages and was aNational Book Award finalist and winner of the Printz Award. Yang’s other works include the popular comics adapation of Avatar: The Last Airbender, and the New York Times Best-Selling graphic novel diptych Boxers & Saints (also a National Book Award finalist). Sonny Liew is a Malaysian-born comic artist and illustrator based in Singapore. He is best known for his work on Vertigo’s My Faith in Frankie together with Mike Carey and Marc Hempel, and Marvel’s adaptation of Sense and Sensibility.

FIRST SECOND is an imprint of Roaring Brook Press, a division of Holtzbrinck Publishers, which owns some of America's most prestigious publishers, known for great integrity and literary quality. These include Henry Holt, FSG, St Martin's Press, Tor and Picador, all of which have garnered the most coveted prizes in publishing.